Philosophy and Star Trek

Okay, I swear, I'm going to dig in and start doing *real* homework instead of pissing away my time making silly graphics in photoshop and surfin' the blogosphere. But first this:

Top 10 Odd College Courses

An article published by MSN Encarta discusses the top 10 weirdest college courses out there. One of the courses is Georgetown University's "Philosophy and Star Trek." Being a naturally inquisitive geek and not wishing to spend my Saturday night reading Chaucer, even though I should, I decide to check it out:

Star Trek is very philosophical. What better way, then, to learn philosophy, than to watch Star Trek, read philosophy, and hash it all out in class? That's the plan. This course is basically an introduction to certain topics in metaphysics and epistemology philosophy, centered around major philosophical questions that come up again and again in Star Trek.

...

The questions that we will wrestle with include:

1. Is time travel possible? Could we go back and kill our grandmothers? What is the nature of time?

--------------

Wow! So it -is- a real class! Awesome! The reference to killing grandmothers worries me, but hey! I'll let it slide this time.

I guess it's not -that- weird: I was once registered for a music class at Youngstown State University called "Rock and Roll to Rock" (The course description reads "An historical survey of the evolution of Rock 'n Roll into Rock with emphasis on the interrelationships of the music and social and political influences and the interaction of Rock with other forms of music.") The class included history and theory, as well as required listening of rock music. The course was legendary among YSU students because of its magical ability to fulfill the music requirement as well as be a fun course.

Anyway, if you want to know more about the fun classes offered at college that aren't Seton Hill University (not that i'm saying we don't have fun classes, mind you... I've heard the rumors about tap class) or you just don't wanna do homework ... check it out:

Comments:

I took a course that was called "The Philosophy of Science Fiction" in the catalog... when we showed up on the first day, the grad student who'd designed the course said we were going to talk about time travel and free will and stuff like that, and that he put "science fiction" in the course title because he wanted to attract a certain kind of person. I enjoyed the course...

I've heard several students say they liked Philosophy of Art. I also teach an English course called "Media Aesthetics" (what is beauty? what purpose does art serve? what makes it "good" or "bad"?). My course begins with philosophy and moves into literature... but you should talk to Mike Atherton (who teaches most of the you philosophy courses).